Weaning twins from BF - any advice including night weaning?

[ariel01]

My twin girls are almost 5.5 months and have been EBF. I wanted to hit the 6 month mark for breast feeding, but have some downtime from work over the holidays and have decided to wean. Mostly for them, as they may have food allergies but we can't pinpoint exactly what. So we're going to try special formula (Nutramigen) and see how they respond. It's also for my sanity as I'm going crazy at my stressful job and trying to pump and nurse still, and with little to no sleep. I have a freezer full of stored milk if we find the formula doesn't make a difference.

So...any tips for weaning them from BF? My OB says to just go cold turkey - will take about 72 hours and will be painful for me.

Night weaning is mostly my concern. My two don't sleep. The only way we can get them to sleep is co-sleeping and me nursing most of the night. So how do I not nurse them in bed when they're used to it? They take bottles of breast milk during the day, but they want to nurse at night? Any advice?

We're also going to be working with a sleep therapist in January, since we have tried EVERYTHING to get our twins to sleep and they just refuse. So if any of you successfully weaned and got your twins sleeping more at night, I'd love to hear from you!

 

[Pinkie 33]

Hi, I don't have any words of wisdom regarding the breastfeeding/nursing however I fed mine EBF until last week (only managed 6 weeks!). I just stopped and gave them formula and they have both taken it fine. Thomas is on Aptamil 1 with no trouble, Elsie is on Aptamil Comfort which helps ease wind & constipation. My boobs are fine, they were uncomfortable for a few days. They still leak occasionally at night when I'm feeding/cuddling babies but that's all.

Good luck, I hope it goes well. You have done so well to BF/EBM for so long! X

 

[ariel01]

Thanks Pinkie!! Congrats on your twins!! And any twin mom that can BF, even for a day is amazing in my view!

Glad to hear your twins made the adjustment easy. I'm hoping mine do. I haven't heard of Aptamil - maybe it's a country/regional thing? Our pediatrician gave us samples of Nutramigen, so we'll see how that goes.

Hoping my boobs don't get sore! They get crazy engorged if I don't pump/nurse after 3 hours. I've got bags of frozen peas ready!

 

[marymoomin]

I was a wimp and from 7-9 mths I still did the night feed by breast. Partly them, partly me. I gradually cut down kind of because when I went back to work I was working from home for the first month and a half. Cold turkey is good if you can managed but I found the emotional trauma as hard as the physical pain. Sorry I am not very helpful but best of luck. Xx
Ps we had allergies too and my twins went on to Active, this was extremely good for them as formula did not agree at all.

 

[ariel01]

Thanks Mary! I considered just doing night nursing, but it's still too much stress! My twins have adapted well to the bottles...but not to the formula.

They had severe reactions to the Nutramigen. So after researching tons I hunted down some Elecare. They're doing much better on it. I seriously thought about going back to nursing, but I know they're allergic to so much more than just dairy and soy. I'd have to basically eat nothing but rice...and with twins and a fulltime stressful job, there's no way I could keep that up.

So hoping Elecare is going to be the answer for us.

Oh and it's been 5 days and my boobs are still super sore. Hard as rocks...well, more like boulders. So much for the pain only lasting 3 days.